New Hope From Millennia-Old Chinese Herbal Medicine

Modern research methods, which can take advantage of increasingly sophisticated methods and tools, continue to yield the sweet fruit of new discoveries that hold out the promise of bettering, and often saving our lives.

A pattern that has emerged, however, is one of the new and the cutting edge merely catching up with established traditional knowledge. For example, recent news offered the findings that a modified centuries-old Chinese meditation practice can rewire our brain. Medical researchers once again have determined that traditional Chinese healing practices have remarkable power.

As reported by Nature News, a four-plant blend that dates back 1,800 years as an intestinal and digestive remedy is found to deliver an effective counter measure to gastrointestinal side effects associated with chemotherapy prescribed to cancer patients.

The herbal mixture sounds simple enough: peonies, liquorice, the fruit of the date tree and the flowers of the skullcap plant are at the root of a traditional healing treatment for digestive ailments for two millennia. But the simplicity is deceptive indeed. Nature News indicates that the precise suite of chemical agents contained within this mixture, considered separately and certainly as agents whose interactions in the system bring about healing, remain a bit of a mystery to the researchers at New Haven, Conn. PhytoCeutica and Yale University School of Medicine.

What has become clear however in trials conducted on synthetic approximations of the herbal blend is that it restores the function of gut cells responsible for normal digestive function. While chemotherapy is often necessary to ensure that cancer cells are killed off, the gut cells are often collateral damage in the battle to control the disease.

Further trial and investigation may certainly be expected, but early indicators suggest a successful and beneficial method for warding off the severely impeded digestive functioning that can commonly accompany a course of chemotherapy treatment.

Photo by noe** via Flickr